Office of Intellectual Property and Economic Development

Welcome to the Office of Intellectual Property & Economic Development (IPED). Our mission is to cultivate, protect, and commercialize inventions and discoveries which result from research and scholarly activities conducted at the University of Rhode Island (URI). We serve the URI community and the Rhode Island Board of Education by connecting the research community and commercialization partners to engender the technology transfer of patents and other intellectual property created at URI.

This technology transfer role includes the interpretation and implementation of the URI Intellectual Property Policy as provided in the University Manual Chapter 10 (Sec.10.40.10) approved by the Rhode Island Board of Education on April 8, 2013. The URI IP Policy governs the process by which we review, protect (patent), license, and distribute revenue related to URI inventions and discoveries.

The IPED is a department within the Division of Research and Economic Development and reports to its Vice President Gerald Sonnenfeld. The IPED (previously called the IPMAC) is tasked by the Rhode Island Board of Education with protecting and managing intellectual property on its behalf.

We work hand-in-hand with the URI Research Foundation which complements our mission for technology transfer and commercialization.